Exploring Subcultures and Countercultures: Unveiling Shared Ideologies and Alternative Perspectives

1. & Countercultures

2. After today… • You should be able to tell the difference between subcultures & countercultures • You should be able to identify the purpose of subcultures within dominant society • You should be able to identify the qualities of sub/countercultures

3. What is a subculture? • Any group that exists within dominant, mainstream culture…a world within a world • Shared ideology…values, norms, beliefs • Shared aesthetic…dress, pastimes, music, zines/blogs, etc • Shared vernacular…specialized language

4. Types of Subcultures • Vocational subcultures • Recreational subcultures • Ethnic subcultures

5. Job Jargon: Truck Driving • "Reefer" ... refrigerated trailer • "Big Road" .... Highway • "Flip Flop" ... return trip • "Chicken Coup" ... truck scales • "Bear" ... Police

6. Youth Subcultures • In your groups make a list of 5 youth subcultures we have here at the high school: • Identify what shared values/ideology the group embraces • Identify what shared aesthetic the group embraces (music, dress, hairstyles, body modifications, pastimes, etc.) • Identify what shared vernacular the group uses (slang terms or specialized language)

8. Purpose of both sub and countercultures • Gives people a place where they are empowered • Connects likeminded people • Makes invisible people visible • Allows people to escape the identity they are born into • Gives people a place to construct identity

9. Otherkin • Subculture of people, primarily Internet-based, who identify in some way as other than human • Believe themselves to be mythological or legendary creatures, explaining their beliefs through reincarnation, having a nonhuman soul • Angels, demons, dragons, elves, extra-terrestrials, fairies, kitsune, lycanthropes, and vampires

11. Steampunk • Based on science fiction literature blended with Victorian Era culture… • Think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne • Clothing: gowns, corsets, petticoats and bustles; suits with vests, coats and spats; or military-inspired garments.  • Example: Panic at the Disco’s “The Ballad of Mona Lisa” • Music – industrial dance/synthpunk

13. Hipsters

15. LARPers • Participants physically act out their characters' actions as decided by the gamemaster • May last hours or days • May be in public or private • Most characters dress up and have alternative personas • Horror, zombie, fantasy, post apocalyptic, assassin, etc.

17. What is a counterculture? • A group who’s values and norms deviate from or are at odds with those of dominant culture: • Usually viewed as negative/dangerous, but not always (e.g. women’s lib groups in the 70s or the Civil Rights movement of the 60s) • Hippies, KKK, early punk, Satanists, Hells Angels/Pagans, Anarchists, Cults

18. Why do people join countercultures? • Members of countercultural groups are… • Usually outsiders • Alienated • Freaks, geeks, nerds and losers • Marginalized people with little power over their status in the world • Don’t fit the mold of what American cultures says is “normal”

19. Hippies

20. 60’s Counterculture • Developed first in the US and UK in the early 1960s The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. • Values: Anti-authority, Personal freedom: emphasized change and experimentation, Anti-war, Anti-authority, sexual freedom • Politics: Supported Civil Rights movement, Anti-war movement, Feminism, Environmentalism, Gay Liberation movement • Music: The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan

21. Punk Counterculture • Emerges in London and NYC in the 1970s • Max’s Kansas City & CBGBs • Backlash against the hippie counterculture • Values: nihilistic, rejected materialism, anti-establishment • Politics: Anarchism • Music: Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie, Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith